Dual electrohydraulic vehicle for tunnelling and roof reinforcement

ABSTRACT

The present invention develops a dual electrohydraulic vehicle for development of tunnels and roof fortification, comprising both a front face drilling unit and a roof support and fortification unit. Furthermore, the electrohydraulic vehicle is composed of a front chassis consisting of a pair of wheels, positioning cylinders, an operator&#39;s cab and two telescopic arms mounted on such chassis and a rear chassis located behind the front chassis according to the direction of movement and consisting of a pair of wheels, positioning cylinders, two electrohydraulic units also called Power pack, an electric cable reel and a diesel engine, wherein both chassis are articulated to each other, of the jumbo type, by means of a vertical axle. This electro-hydraulic vehicle may also include a cartridge launcher tube and a semi-automatic bolt feeding system.

TECHNICAL FIELD

A dual electro-hydraulic vehicle, capable of performing tunneldevelopment and roof fortification work; applicable in undergroundmining. The self-propelled vehicle consists of a front chassis with twowheels and a rear chassis with two wheels, which are linked together bya central joint.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION State of the Art

The present utility model is related to electro-hydraulic vehicles thatperform mineral exploitation works in the mining sector. It is importantto take into consideration that this equipment performs a series ofprocesses in a cyclical manner known as the mining cycle, which aredescribed below:

It starts with Process 1 related to the development of the tunnel, usingelectro-hydraulic front face drilling vehicles—FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG.6—which are responsible for drilling horizontally into the rock in thedirection desired by geology area in charge of the mine.

Continuing with Process 2 within this cycle is the so-called blastingactivity; in this process the dynamite is loaded and installed in theholes made by the electro-hydraulic front face drilling vehicles(Process 1). The next step after installation is the detonation of thedynamite, thus ending the blasting process.

Process 2 is the hauling of rocks outside the tunnel. This can be doneby a low profile front loader called Scoop and a mining truck. Once theworking area is cleared and cleaned, Process 4 called roof support—FIG.3, FIG. 4 and FIG. 7—is started using a fourth model ofelectro-hydraulic vehicles with the necessary accessories to fortify thetunnel roofs; with this last process the mining cycle is complete.

Having described the mining stages, it is clear that severalelectro-hydraulic vehicles are required; where at least oneelectro-hydraulic vehicle is needed for the front face drilling andanother for the roof fortification stage, increasing the amount ofequipment according to the size of the tunnel section. As more vehiclesbecome part of the mining site fleet, the transfer time, inventorycosts, maintenance costs, labor costs and related indirect costs willincrease. In addition, the mining process times are increased with themovement of all related vehicles within the mining cycle. Therefore, theless equipment working in the mining cycle, the shorter the mining timewill be, making it more productive.

As background of electro-hydraulic vehicles performing work inunderground mining and tunnel development, front face drilling vehiclesare known to exist as demonstrated in the patent EP0203907 entitled“Drill wagon for drilling excavation and rockbolt holes”. In the sameline, some models can be found in the current market such as Troidon 66manufacturer Resemin), Boomer S1D (manufacturer Atlas Copco) and AxeraDD310 manufacturer Sandvik). However, these machines only have thecapacity to perform the front face drilling stage which has beendescribed as process 1 of the mining cycle.

On the other hand, it is known that there are other electro-hydraulicvehicles with the capacity to develop the process of roof fortificationor support described as process 4 in the mining cycle. There is a patentU.S. Pat. No. 4,229,124 entitled “Automatic Roof Bolting system formines”, which refers to a jumbo model that has an OEM design and is usedspecifically for roof fortification or support. In the market, the mostaccepted brands of this type of equipment are the manufacturers Bolter88 (manufacturer Resemin), Boltec H235 (manufacturer Atlas Copco),Robolt SD310 (manufacturer Sandvik), which, like the mentioned patent,can only be used in the support stage.

Finally, it is necessary to point out that in underground mining thetypes of electro-hydraulic drilling and roof fortification vehicles areknown as “Jumbos”. An example of this is patent CA2879241 A1, entitled“Drill positioning system for jumbo carrier unit”. In the claims we willuse this term for a better description.

DESCRIPTION OF THE UTILITY MODEL

To solve the problems mentioned above, the present utility model hasbeen devised, consisting of a single dual electro-hydraulic vehiclecapable of performing both the front face drilling process—FIG. 1—andthe roof fortification process—FIG. 3—for application in constructionand underground mining.

The vehicle that is the subject of the invention consists of aheavy-duty articulated chassis (30), 4WD, self-propelled with a dieselengine (36), with oscillating front and rear axles, two telescopic arms,the first one capable of performing the front face drilling process (31)comprising a beam, which can be simple or telescopic (32), wherein thesimple beam, consists of a single beam having the necessary dimensionsto 10-, 12-, 14- or 16-foot drill rods according to the client's needs,while the telescopic beam consists of two parallel and aligned beams,assembled on top of each other, having the property of extending andcontracting which allows for different length dimensions making possibleto use different lengths of drilling rods. This system works in ahorizontal position and has a parallelism system, which allows that whenlifting or lowering the arm, the guide beam (32) and the hydraulic drill(33) mounted on it, not to lose the horizontal position. The second arm(34) s responsible for carrying out the mechanized fortification of theroof (FIG. 3), having two parallel beams and two hydraulic drills, thefirst hydraulic drill being used to mechanize the drilling and thesecond drill being used to insert the bolt or anchor in the holepreviously mechanized by the first drill. A pivoting support, which isregulated so that, when pivoting, both drills and the cartridge launchertube are concentric. A cartridge launcher tube that is a complement tothe process, the application of which is to inject resin and cementcartridges into the previously mechanized hole; after that, the helicaltype anchor bolt is inserted. In addition, it has a semiautomatic boltfeeding system (40) that makes the work of roof support and rockfortification safer and faster, avoiding the operator to manually feedthe equipment with bolts to perform the support. Both telescopic armsare installed on the front of the chassis—FIG. 8.

Through this utility model, the problems or difficulties mentioned inthe state of the art are solved, such as reducing the fleet ofelectro-hydraulic vehicles involved in the mining cycle (specifically,in the process 1 of tunnel development and the process 4 of support andfortification of roofs in underground mining or civil construction),which would reduce the costs of inventory for spare parts, maintenancecosts of equipment, maintenance and operating labor, among otherindirect costs. In addition, production times for the mining cycle willbe improved by using and moving a single piece of equipment for bothtunnel development and roof fortification instead of using a differentpiece of equipment for each process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

In order to facilitate the understanding of the characteristics of theinvention, a set of drawings is attached to the present descriptivereport, in which the following has been represented for illustrative andnot restrictive purposes:

FIG. 1 shows an electro-hydraulic front face drilling vehicle, in properworking position (jacks extended) performing the front face drillingstage to continue the advance and development of the tunnel (indicatedas Process 1 within the mining cycle—FIG. 5). The vehicle is a frontface drilling vehicle of the Resemin brand and model Troidon 55.

FIG. 2 shows an electro-hydraulic tunnel development vehicle, alsocalled a jumbo front face drilling vehicle. This vehicle consists of afront chassis and a rear chassis, linked together by a central joint.There is a telescopic arm (12) On the front chassis which is used tomove and position the beam (13) either simple or telescopic to performthe front face drilling operation, this must always maintain thehorizontal position. The beam is used to advance the hydraulic drill(14) when drilling. In the rear chassis there is the diesel engine (15)and the transmission box, having the function of moving the equipment;an electro-hydraulic unit (16) also known as Power Pack, which is drivenby electric energy from the mine or worksite, transmitted to theequipment by means of the electric cable reel (17).

FIG. 3 shows an electro-hydraulic bolter vehicle, in proper workingposition, performing the work of roof fortification or also called rocksupport within a mining tunnel (Process 4 within the mining cycle—FIG.5). It can be observed that previously the roof of the tunnel has beensupported with helical bolts and continues with the advance every 1.2meters. For this case; this vehicle is a Resemin Bolter model 88.

FIG. 4 shows an electro-hydraulic vehicle for roof fortification intunnels. This vehicle consists of a front chassis and a rear chassis,linked together by a central joint. On the front chassis it has anextendable telescopic arm (21), with a bolting column, composed by twoguide beams (22) having the function of guiding and advancing thedrilling and bolting, on each beam, it has a hydraulic drill (23), tomake the holes and another one for bolting: in parallel it has acartridge launcher tube. Also in the lower part of the chassis it hastwo front wheels (24) for moving the equipment. In the rear chassis,there is the diesel engine (25), coupled to the transmission box (26)which is in charge of transmitting the power to the front and reardifferentials and these to the respective wheels to provide displacementto the equipment. It also has an electro-hydraulic unit (27), which iscomposed of an electric motor and an axial piston pump, also calledPower Pack, which is fed by electric energy from the mine that is sentthrough the cable reel (28).

FIG. 5 shows the mining cycle, specifying 4 main processes. Process 1 isthe development of the tunnel front, which as a first step is thedrilling of the rock, for this work the front face drillingelectrohydraulic vehicles are used. The Process 2 is the blasting; thisis a work of installation of the dynamite in the holes made by the frontface drilling equipment. Process 3 is the hauling or cleaning process,where the rocks resulting from the blasting are dragged to the outsideof the tunnel, and Process 4 is the fortification of the roof andsupport, which consists of placing anchor bolts on the tunnel roofs toprevent the collapse, or fall of rocks where the electro-hydraulicvehicles of support and roof fortification work.

According to the previous explanation, in the world market 2 vehiclesare used, one for each process (front face drilling and development ofthe tunnel and roof fortification) so the reason for this invention isto present in only one vehicle the application of both processes.

FIG. 6 shows the electro-hydraulic vehicle subject of the invention,exposing in this figure one of the two telescopic boom arms extended tothe upper right side and with the front (42) and rear (43) positioningcylinders extended in working position; which is in charge of the frontface drilling process and tunnel development.

FIG. 7 shows the electro-hydraulic vehicle subject of the invention,with one of the two telescopic booms in the working position and showingthe reach and working area depending on the size of the bolt to be used.The equipment can be available for 7-, 8-, 10-foot bolts. This processis called rock fortification or roof support.

FIG. 8 shows the electro-hydraulic vehicle subject of the invention,consisting of two chassis, which are articulated with each other bymeans of a vertical axle (30). On the front chassis, there are two Boomarms, the first telescopic Boom arm for the front face drillingapplication (31), having two guide beams (32) in a telescopic way, incharge of advancing the drill (33). On the other hand, there is the Boomarm or bolting turret (34), having two parallel guide beams that advancethe drilling and bolting equipment (35), it also contains a canopy typeoperators cab (41) protecting the operator from possible rock falls andequipment overturning. On the rear chassis, there is the diesel engine(3$) with the function of moving the equipment to the work site, theequipment has R20 wheels and rim (37), ideal for avoiding unevenness andobstructions in the work site. It also has an electric cable reel (38)and a water reel (39).

FIG. 9 shows the electro-hydraulic vehicle subject of the invention asin image 6, with a 3D view.

1. A dual electrohydraulic vehicle with the capacity to perform thedevelopment of tunnels or front face drilling works as well as toperform roof fortification works, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT it includes afront face drilling unit which consists of a telescopic arm (31), asimple or telescopic beam (32), where the simple beam consists of asingle having the necessary dimensions to use 10-, 12-, 14- or 16-footdrill rods and the telescopic beam consists of two beams assembled ontop of each other with the ability to expand and contract, and ahydraulic drill (33) which moves along the beam (32) when the front-endis drilled; and a roof support and fortification unit consisting of asecond telescopic arm (34), two guide beams (44) arranged in parallelwhere the first one supports and moves the drilling equipment capable ofperforming mechanized drilling and the second guide beam supports andmoves the bolting equipment in charge of inserting a bolt in thepreviously mechanized hole.
 2. The dual electrohydraulic vehicle ofclaim 1, characterized in that it comprises a front chassis, wherein thefront chassis consists of a pair of wheels (37), positioning cylinders(42), an operator's cab (41), a telescopic arm capable of performingfront face drilling or tunneling works (31), and a telescopic armcapable of performing roof support and fortification (34), mounted onthat chassis; and a rear chassis located to the rear of the frontchassis according to the direction of movement, where the rear chassisis made up of a pair of wheels (37), positioning cylinders (43), twoelectro-hydraulic units also called power packs, an electric cable reel(38), and a diesel engine (36) for moving the vehicle, wherein bothchassis are articulated to each other, of the jumbo type, by means of avertical axle (30).
 3. The dual electro-hydraulic vehicle of claim 1,characterized in that the fortification and support unit contains acartridge launcher tube, whose function is to inject a resin and cementcartridge into the previously drilled hole, and then insert a bolt. 4.The dual electro-hydraulic vehicle of claim 1, characterized in that thefortification and support unit contains a semi-automatic bolt feedingsystem (40) as well, which automates the operators process of insertingone bolt per working cycle.